Humberto Maturana (1928-2021): Remembering This Scientist’s Extraordinary Contribution To The Biology Of Cognition

A human being passing into eternity past 90 means a fulfilled life. It is more so in the case of Humberto Maturana, the biologist from Chile, who passed away on 6 May 2021.

He is to the science of cognition what Charles Darwin is to the science of evolution. Yet, he has not attained the same fame as the British naturalist. But his importance to the future of science and also human society cannot be exaggerated.

I first read about the work of Maturana and his colleague Francisco Varela (1946-2001) in Fritjof Capra’s book The Web of Life (1996).

As a research student of biology, Maturana found himself attracted to cybernetics and had several questions. Arriving at the right questions that become the driving force of one’s life purpose is vital for a meaning and beautiful life.

The questions for Maturana as he revealed them to Capra were this: "What is the organisation of the living?" and "What takes place in the phenomenon of perception?"

Maturana was known for his work on the visual perception in frogs.

His work with the famous cognitive scientist Jerome Lettvin (1920-2011) of MIT, titled "What the Frog's Eye Tells the Frog's Brain", is today a path-breaking classic in the history of the science of cognition.

Though now accepted, when Lettvin and Maturana presented the paper, they were "literally laughed at" by the physiologists reminisced Lettvin later.

Maturana wrote later about his work on colour vision:

In 1960, Maturana created the biology of cognition laboratory at the University of Chile. At the same time, he also used to visit (1964 to 69) the highly-advanced biological computing laboratory (BCL) at Illinois, US. It was working under cybernetics legend Heintz von Foerster.

Here, Maturana worked on colour vision in humans.

In the 1960s ,a brilliant student Francisco Varela met Maturana.

Soon Maturana realised that he had met a sahridhaya. Maturana came to a striking conclusion after years of research in perception and the way the organisation of nervous system plays a fundamental role.

This is an amazingly insightful statement which has stood the test of time.

Maturana and Varela identified six fundamental properties of an autopoietic system: identity, integrity, self-boundness, self-maintenance, external inflow of matter and external inflow of energy. Autopoietic systems can be identified at all levels.

It provides an excellent exploratory window to understand not only nature and origin of life but also cognition, consciousness and language – particularly lan.

The similarity between Bhartrhari’s Sabda Tattva and what Maturana calls ‘languaging’ is quite striking.

Maturana and Varela developed what is now known as ‘Santiago school of cognition’. They shifted the focus to the dynamics of connections and configurations as well as what Maturana calls ‘autopoiesis’.

Slowly and reluctantly, autopoiesis started gaining the attention of scientists. Lynn Margulis, the famous microbiologist, evolutionist and one of the co-creators of Gaia view of life, wrote:

Santiago theory of cognition and consciousness also emphasises the centrality of communication and language in ‘bringing forth’ a world.

Not all schools of Hinduism deny an external world completely.

Incidentally, Hindus also have the term ‘svayambu’ and the most sacred of the Shiv Lingas which are considered as embodiment of 'uncreate creativity', are svayambu-lingas.

A word of caution is necessary here.

The resonance and similarities we see in various Hindu schools and autopoiesis is not to suggest that we know autopoiesis centuries before Maturana. We do not. But we have a richer and flexible heritage to understand and apply autopoiesis in approaching the problems we study and explain the phenomenon we experience.

Sadly, we need to say that such attempts are conspicuous by their absence in our academia and culture. So we should not allow ourselves to be drawn into a false sense of prideful self-congratulation.

Unfortunately, despite autopoiesis providing a wonderful exploratory window into phenomena in varied domains from economics to ecology, evolutionary science to sociology and psychology to linguistics, phenomena of vital importance to the survival and ecologically harmonious flourishing of humanity, the discovery has not received the due importance it deserves.

We have to be thankful to Fritjof Capra for making this discovery reach audience far and wide.

One wishes India honours this important scientist of cognition Humberto Maturana (and his colleague Francisco Varela) with a memorial lecture and a postal stamp.